Like most medium format cameras, the H4D-50 is large-bodied camera consisting of five major components: body/mirror box, back, lens, viewfinder, grip. The lens and viewfinder and back can be interchanged; it’s a modular camera system, or at least it’s my assumption that a Hasselblad 31MP back can be exchanged for a 60MP back; I had no opportunity (parts) to verify this assumption, nor is it clear that the H4D body can be purchased without a back.

The H4D modular design stands in contrast to the Leica S2, a medium format all-in-one DSLR little different in basic design from a Nikon D3x or Canon 1Ds Mark III.

Your reasons (and mine) for preferring one design or the other will be rooted in purposes to which the camera will be put. I’ll state up-front that I prefer the Leica S2 approach, because the camera body is very compact and DSLR-like. Yet at the same time, the S2 approach means that no components except the lens can be swapped out, and thus having a spare body means considerable expense (it’s not clear that the H4D body can be purchased without a back).

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